Computing technology has revolutionized the way people work and play and has contributed enormously to the advancement of humankind. Computers now aid in enumerable applications such as word processing, computer simulations, advanced gaming, voice recognition, and much more. Computing systems now come in a wide-variety of forms including, for example, desktop computers, laptop computers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), mobile telephones and other devices.
One area of computing technology that has become increasingly popular is the use of computers in creating documents, graphics, and other types of content for distribution on a large scale, especially over a network such as the Internet. Creating content for large scale distribution over the Internet, however, may be a frustrating endeavor for an author. In addition to composing the content, the author should format the content in accordance with the display capabilities of the various devices that the content will be presented on. The display capabilities may include the resolution of a display device, the horizontal display width, or the available area of a display window. There are also other display capabilities such as implemented computing hardware, processing capabilities, and graphics capabilities (e.g., video display capabilities, 3D object display ability, etc.) that the author must also take into account.
If the content is intended for presentation on a single display device or type of display device such as a particular computer screen, then the formatting is fairly straight forward. The display capabilities of the display device are determined and the content can be formatted in such a way that optimizes the display space.
With large scale distribution over the Internet, however, the content may be intended for a variety of display devices each having different display capabilities. In such a case, a single content format may not be optimum for all intended display devices. For example, a content format optimized for a large, high resolution display device such as a computer screen may be different from a content format optimized for a PDA. In fact, content formatted for the large display, high resolution device may not even be displayable on smaller display, low resolution devices, such as the PDA.
To accommodate for the largest number of display devices possible, it has become common for content to be formatted to utilize only the most basic display capabilities that are common to most display devices. In this way, the author of the content has at least some control over formatting regardless of the display device used to present the content. The resulting format, however, generally does not optimize the content for the available display space and/or other display capabilities. For example, since the display window width and/or screen display space are usually unknown, the content is typically formatted to align to the left side (or right side as the case may be, e.g., for languages such as Hebrew) of the display window or screen. The left/right alignment ensures that the content is left/right justified regardless of display device; however, this often results in wasted blank display space on the right/left side of the display window. In addition, the content is often not centered in the display space, creating the need for horizontal and/or vertical scrolling to view the entire content. Accordingly, formatting for the lowest common display capabilities supports the largest number of display devices, but it does not guarantee that the content is optimized for the available display space.
Due to the limitations in optimizing display areas described above, several solutions have been developed to try to optimize content layout for all display devices. One such solution uses content pagination. Content pagination takes content (e.g., a novel, magazine article, etc.) and formats it such that the content is presented on the full area of the display window or screen without any need for scrolling. Once a portion of the content is formatted into a full screen page, the remaining content is typically formatted into additional full pages as needed, where the number of pages depends on the capabilities of the display device. For example, on a PDA full width pagination may format static content into 1,400 pages while on a computer screen the full pagination is viewed as 300 pages.
The pagination solution, however, requires special formatting software that must be present on the computer hosting the display device. Consequently, content pagination is not available for display devices that do not have access to the formatting software. In addition, such pagination techniques typically do not consider all of the display capabilities of the various devices and dynamically render such content based on such limitations. Accordingly, content presented on these display devices will usually not be optimized for the display space.
Another solution currently used to optimize display space on multiple devices has been to include a single display rule that defines a desired centering point and fixed width for the content. As the display space changes (e.g., changes in resolution, size, etc.), the centering point and the width remain constant. Nevertheless, in order to give the appearance that the display layout is optimized, excess display space, if any, beyond the fixed width is simply blackened out. Note, however, that for smaller display device such as a PDA, this technique may still require scrolling since the fixed width may exceed the available display space. The content is thus not truly optimized for the full width of the display space in every circumstance.
A further display optimization solution has been to include a single one time rule (e.g., a style sheet) that optimizes content layout for the current display. For example, upon determining a client's display capabilities, a server can select a rule or style sheet corresponding to the display parameters and content type. The client then uses the rule or style sheet to format the content for optimal display layout. Although this solution offers full display of content for a larger number of display devices, changes to the display window size, different orientation or modes of the window, and/or dynamic data are not supported. For example, if the display window is resized for any reason, or if the orientation of the window is changed (e.g., from landscape to portrait, or vise versa), then the content will no longer be formatted for full display width and/or height. Although a solution to this may be to provide a plurality of rules based on various window sizes and modes, such rules would still be based on the original content type and layout.
As with the other solutions described above, these rules do not consider all of the display capabilities of the various devises and dynamically render such content based on such limitations. For example, the above solutions do not necessarily account for or consider if a display device is capable of rendering 3D images, video capabilities, processing capabilities, etc., and adjusting the rendering of the content based on such limitations. Such rules and/or rules previously discussed would not be based upon and would not specify what content may be displayed nor take content properties into account. As such, any dynamic changes to the content will not be accounted for; and therefore this solution does not provide full screen optimization for content on every display possibility.